Image: James Bovard.

In 1999, the Supreme Court recognized in that the “‘constitutional right to travel from one State to another’ is firmly embedded in our jurisprudence.” Unless federal agents secretly disapprove of you, your beliefs, or your suspected connections. Or unless those agents are feeling ornery and simply want to harass or taunt hapless people passing through TSA Whole Body Scanners.

The Transportation Security Administration has vexed Americans ever since it was created in 2002. Last week, three separate idiotic TSA surveillance programs were exposed by Congress and the Trump administration.

In 2021, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) created a secret watchlist of individuals who publicly opposed President Biden’s Covid mask mandate. Operation Freedom to Breathe resulted in dozens of individuals being either banned from flying or hit with additional groping or patdowns. As journalist Matt Taibbi reported, “12 were placed on a watch list for removing their masks in-flight,” which a TSA memo characterized as “an act of extreme recklessness in carrying out an act that represents a threat to the life of passengers and crew.” That covert crackdown only ended when a federal judge struck down Biden’s mask mandate in April 2022. Only in Washington would an edict to banish all dissidents be labeled Operation Freedom to Breathe.

The Biden’s TSA secretly condemned hundreds of people allegedly linked to the January 6, 2021 Capitol protests. TSA approved “enhanced screening” and watchlists for anyone “suspected of traveling to the National Capital Region” for that protest, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) revealed. TSA bloated the list of January 6 suspects by tapping a George Washington University database of alleged extremists – which was as credible as randomly selecting names of Trump donors. A TSA privacy officer protested: “TSA is punishing people for the expression of their ideas when they haven’t been charged, let alone convicted of incitement or sedition.”

New dirt also came to the surface about the Quiet Skies program, which sent TSA air marshals to covertly surveil travelers on the flimsiest pretexts. If you fell........

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